Living on Earth

 I was looking for an empty notebook this morning to use with the class Mary Ann and I are teaching at Prairie Hill School. And I found one on the bottom of a pile with only one page used. That page had a bunch of hastily scratched notes from something years ago. I almost threw it out, but decided I should read it first. And the following is what was there. I don't know if they are notes from a lecture, a book, a video, or what. And I'm almost certain they didn't come from my own head. But they are too good to throw away, and here they are:

If we look at the history of our planet as the face of a clock, humans have been here only the last two seconds. Because of changes on a grand scale, like the sun gradually getting hotter, humans will probably eventually go extinct but the planet will remain. Human activity these days will hasten that timeline. But it is important to realize we are just a blip on the screen. It doesn't make sense to despair about the future. Instead, we can enjoy what we have now: an amazingly beautiful unique earth that provides for us.

The greenhouse effect, something we're beginning to be more aware of, went wild on Venus, with roasting temperatures, and any life there is now long gone. Here on earth, the greenhouse gases have been good for us until recently. The sun shines down on us and the greenhouse gases trap it, warming the planet. Just now we're entering a period of time when too much heat is trapped. It's a delicate balance. We're living in a beautiful time when this balance still serves plants and animals. We're having a good run, but it won't last forever. If we can step back and look at the human species, we're having a tremendously vital but short-lived experience.

Earth's atmosphere also protects us from the assaults of outer space. Some planets don't have an atmosphere, and meteors smash into them all the time. We are fortunate in this way too. We are less likely to have a huge asteroid hit us and wipe out civilization. 

We humans are touched by the intimacy between mothers and children in animals, and we see it in ourselves as well. It is gentle, protective behavior, found especially in mammals. This and other kinds of communication are of utmost importance all over the natural world, animals and plants alike. There's a beautiful intricate correography between life forms, subtle movements, smells, sounds. We humans have lost much of this subtle consciousness. Our communication is more blatant, yet sometimes less understandable. We can lie. We can say something but mean another. 

And this is where the notes stop. It leaves us in the middle of a thought. But it does stir the mind and the imagination. So I'll leave it as is, and hope that it has been as interesting to you as it has been to me. It begs for a conclusion....